Features

Alien 3

After directing several popular music videos, Fincher's feature debut was Alien 3 (1992), which was at the time the most expensive picture ever made by a first-time director. While it received an Oscar nomination for special effects, the film was not well received by critics or moviegoers. Fincher became involved with several disputes with 20th Century Fox over script and budget issues, which eventually led Fincher to disassociate himself with the production in later years, as evidenced by his refusal to record a commentary track for the 9-disc Alien Quadrilogy box-set released in 2003 as well as having the film removed from his filmography sections on the DVDs for Fight Club and Panic Room. In "The Director’s Cut",[3] he blames the producers for not putting the necessary trust in him. He has said that they were not interested in making a good film but instead wanted to exploit the franchise in the most profitable manner. Even after the film had already opened in the USA, a Japanese trailer still advertised a storyline that was not in the movie but which the producers would have preferred because of greater expected popularity at the international box office. After this, Fincher retreated back into the world of commercial and music video directing, earning a Grammy Award for the Rolling Stones’ video "Love Is Strong" (1994).

Se7en

Brad Pitt, a collaborating actor with Fincher in three film productions.

In 1995 Fincher directed Se7en. The film, based on a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker, told the story of two detectives (played in the movie by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) tracking down a serial killer who bases his killings on the seven deadly sins. The film grossed more than $100 million domestically (over $300 million internationally).[4] The chairman of New Line Cinema, Arnold Kopelson, originally refused to allow filming of the shocking climactic scene. With the aid of Brad Pitt, who stated that he would not be involved with the picture if its ending were changed, Fincher was allowed to film the original scene and use it in the final cut.

The Game

After the success of Se7en, Fincher went on to film The Game (1997), a Twilight Zone-style thriller which shared many similarities in style with Se7en. The story focused on a closed off San Francisco businessman (played by Michael Douglas) who receives an unusual gift from his younger brother (Sean Penn), in which he becomes the main player of a role-playing game that takes over his life. It was well received by critics despite middling box-office returns.

Fight Club

Fight Club was a screen adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel of the same name about an insomniac office worker who opens up a club devoted exclusively to bare knuckle fighting for men. Featuring Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, and Se7en collaborator Brad Pitt, the 1999 film was easily one of the most publicized of the year but was an early disappointment at the box-office and received mixed reviews. Fight Club was panned by several critics and alienated audiences leading to its box office failure in the United States.

However many critics and audiences later changed their perceptions and the film appeared on many 'best of the year' lists and soon developed a following. Entertainment Weekly, which had originally given the film a negative grade of D, later ranked the DVD #1 on its list of "The Top 50 DVDs You Need to Own".

In 2006 the British magazine Total Film voted Fight Club number four in the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, beaten only by Jaws, Vertigo and Goodfellas at 3, 2 and 1 respectively.[5]

Panic Room

In 2002, Fincher followed up with the thriller Panic Room. Though the film impressively pulled in over $92 million at the U.S. box office, it was not as well received by critics as Se7en, Fight Club or The Game. The story follows a single mother (Jodie Foster) and her daughter (Kristen Stewart) as they hide in a safe room of their new house, away from criminals (Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam and Fight Club collaborator Jared Leto) bent on finding a missing fortune. Fincher acknowledged Panic Room as a more mainstream thriller, describing the film as "[basically] a date movie" and a "really good B movie" about "two people trapped in a closet" on the DVD's audio commentary.

Zodiac was one of the best-reviewed films of that year, with only two other 2007 films appearing on more top-10 lists (No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood).[7] However, the film struggled at the box office, earning only $33 Million in the U.S.[8] Despite an aggressive campaign by the studio, expectations surrounding Robert Downey Jr.’s supporting performance, Fincher’s direction and Vanderbilt’s adapted script, the film did not earn a single Academy Award nomination.[9]

The Killer

On November 1, 2007, Variety reported that Fincher was attached to do an adaptation of a French graphic novel called The Killer by Alexis Nolent, which was optioned by Paramount Pictures and Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, with Pitt attached to star in the film. Scripted by Allesandro Camon, the film is about a top assassin, with his conscience getting the better of him, and a cop on his tail.[14]

Black Hole

On February 20, 2008, Variety reported that Fincher was set to direct an adaptation of the Charles Burns comic book, Black Hole. The film, set up at Paramount Pictures, is set to follow sexually active teens who begin to transmit a 'bug' sexually, which causes strange mutations. As of now, no production timetable has been set.

The Goon

On July 2, 2008, it was announced that Fincher has optioned Eric Powell’s award winning comic, The Goon. BLUR STUDIO is to develop as a CG animated feature film with Dark Horse Entertainment for Universal Pictures.[15]

Heavy Metal

Variety reported that Paramount Pictures will make another animated film with David Fincher, based on the Heavy Metal comics. Fincher is set to direct one of the film’s eight or nine segments, which will also feature other directors such as animator Tim Miller and magazine owner and publisher Kevin Eastman directing another. The film is envisioned as being an animated, adult-themed R-rated film.[16] On July 14, 2008 Paramount Pictures announced the movie is put on hold.[17] On September 4, 2008, it was announced the film was to be made by Columbia Pictures, and a few of the directors attached to make a segment each includes Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski and Guillermo del Toro, as well as James Cameron.[18]

Chef

In November 2008, Production Weekly announced Sony picked up the rights to a comedy entitled Chef with Keanu Reeves in a starring role. Fincher told MTV, "It's like a celibate sex comedy if that means anything. It's really about the creative process. It's truly an aromatic art-form, making food. I love that idea. And I love Keanu’s passion for that world." Written by Steven Knight, the project is now set up at Paramount Pictures with Fincher set to direct, a project he has planned for many years.[19]

The Reincarnation of Peter Proud

An announcement was made on November 9th, 2009 that Andrew Kevin Walker and David Fincher will re-team for the remake of the 1975 film The Reincarnation of Peter Proud.[20][21] This marks the fourth time Andrew Kevin Walker and Fincher will work together. Walker wrote Fincher's 1995 thriller Se7en, did uncredited rewrites for Fight Club and made a cameo appearance in Panic Room.

Sourced

Gavin
Smith goes one-on-one with David Fincher (1999)

A stylized version of our Ikea present. It is talking about
very simple concepts. We're designed to be hunters and we're in a
society of shopping. There's nothing to kill anymore, there's
nothing to fight, nothing to overcome, nothing to explore. In that
societal emasculation this everyman is created.

We wanted a title sequence that started in the fear center of
the brain. [When you hear] the sound of a gun being cocked that's
in your mouth, the part of you brain that gets everything going,
that realizes that you are fucked - we see all the thought
processes, we see the synapses firing, we see the chemical
electrical impulses that are the call to arms. And we wanted to
sort of follow that out. Because the movie is about thought, it's
about how this guy thinks. And it's from his point of view, soley.
So I liked the idea of starting a movie from thought, from the
beginning of the first fear impulse that went, Oh shit, I'm fucked,
how did I get here?

You want to be able to provide something, and you're pissing
down a fucking well. It will suck you dry and take everything you
have and, like being a parent, you can pour as much love as you
want, and your kid still says, "Just let me right out here, you
don't have to take me all the way." You're working to make yourself
obsolete. I'm not going to make Persona - my movies are
fairly obvious in what the people want and what it is that's
happening; it;s not that internalized. What's internalized is how
you process the information from the singular, subjective point of
view. And that becomes the subtext of it.

About directing films

Filmmmaking encompasses everything, from tricking people into
investing in it, to putting on the show, to trying to distill down
to moments in time, and ape reality but send this other message.
It's got everything. When I was a kid I loved to draw, and I loved
my electric football sets, and I painted little things and made
sculptures and did matte painting and comic books and illustrated
stuff, and took pictures, had a darkroom, loved to tape-record
stuff. It's all of that. It's not having to grow up. It's
four-dimensional chess, it's strategy, and it's being painfully
honest, and unbelivably deceitful, and everything in between.

Fightin Words
(1999)

The movie is not that violent. There are ideas in the movie
that are scary, but the film isn't about violence, the
glorification of violence or the embracing of violence. In the
movie, violence is a metaphor for feeling. It's a film about the
problems or requirements involved with being masculine in today's
society.

Violence shouldn't be presented as drama. I think people
looking for an easy way out often write scenes where characters
come into violent conflict as opposed to looking for the true drama
in the situation. That's a shortcoming of a lot of films and
television shows. I think certain presentations of violence are not
immoral, but amoral.

I find it amoral if you're making a movie where the problem is
solved with a guy standing in the back of pickup truck firing a
machine at the bad guys. The morality of it is questionable because
the repercussions of violence are incredibly far-reaching.

I do like movies that take a toll on the audience. I want to
work the subconscious. I want to involve you in ways in which you
might not necessarily want to get involved. I want to play off
those things that you're expecting to get when the lights go down
and the 20th Century Fox logo comes up. There's an audience
expectation and I'm interested in how movies play with--and
off--that expectation. That's what I'm interested in.

A Talk With David
Fincher (1999)

I always feel ill-prepared for commentaries and it had been so
long I was afraid I'd forget everything that happened on the film.
But having everybody come together for it was really great. It was
like a high school reunion. We all reminisced and just had a great
time.

Oh, yeah, I love DVD's. I don't have what you'd call an
extensive collection, maybe a couple of hundred or so. But I have
something on almost all the time.

There are some movies I can watch over and over, never get sick
of. I'll put one of those on and be puttering around the house.
Then a certain scene will come on and I'll just have to go over and
watch.

For me, the scariest thing about a serial killer is that
there's somebody who lives next door to you, running power tools
late into the night, and you don't know he has a refrigerator full
of penises.

As much as people pretend 'I fit in, I understand, I get the
rules,' there are always times spent away from that where you go,
'I thought I knew. It seemed so clear to me, and then...' That
sense of loneliness, or the sense of not fitting in or being out of
depth, is probably the most common denominator.

Entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of
medicine. Some people go to the movies to be reminded that
everything's okay. I don't make those kinds of movies. That, to me,
is a lie. Everything's not okay.

You have a responsibility for the way you make the audience
feel, and I want them to feel uncomfortable.

Hollywood is great. I also think it's stupid and small-minded
and shortsighted. I'm sure there are people who get into movies so
they can get nice tables at restaurants.

You can either look at your career as the things you're going
to leave behind, and they have to be executed flawlessly and you
have to know exactly what it is that you're doing. Or you can be
realistic about the fact that you're going to learn as you practice
what you do.

Unsourced

I'm always interested in movies that scar.

You look at it and go: What do we need to say, what do we want
to say, and when push comes to shove, go with what we need to say,
then prioritize and fight like hell to get what you need to pull it
off

About David
Fincher

He's just scary smart, sort of smarter than everyone else in
the room. There's just a handful of these people who know
absolutely everything about the process. They could do everyone's
job brilliantly. Every aspect is under their control.